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Monday, December 28, 2015

Hello friends. You know what’s great about the Gossamer Blue kits? They’ve got everything you need in one, or 2 or 3 packages and it takes the guess work out of scrapping on the go whether it to a friend’s house, retreat or vacation.

I’m scrapping while on holiday in Europe and my kit arrived right before I left so I packed it right in my carry-on. I bring a small case of essential tools – small scissors, adhesive, pen, etc. so it’s an easy grab & go. Oh and my Instax printer.

Here is my December Kit getting ready to be scrapped on a balcony is Santorini, Greece. Oh to be back there now!

This month’s kit is filled with little (and big) hidden gems. Every time I started to create, I found something new and interesting that just kind of popped out of nowhere.

This is exactly what happened as I started working on this month’s pattern play. I honed in on the Pink Paislee Memorandum clipboard elements. My Instax printer prints small 2×3 ish photos so when I saw the clipboard paper and stickers, I knew I had to do a play on that.

Supplies: December Main kit, Main Kit add-on, Life Pages kit, Life Pages Themed Add-on

I created a background using papers from the 6×6 paper pad and then layered the hand cut clipboards around the page, leaving a feature spot for the photo.

We are on vacation celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary so I thought I’d do a huge title using the supersized numbers. Some people think the number 13 is good and others think the opposite. I happen to think it’s rather lucky hence my title.

I used the labels from both the stationary set and the 6 x 6 paper pad to add my journaling, location and date.

Each little quadrant of the layout is it’s own little story that comes together to tell the bigger story. It was quite fun adding here and there to tie it all together into one love story.

Monday, December 21, 2015

What the WHAT??? I did a 2 page layout. I seriously cannot remember the last time I did one of these. There's something about them that makes me all cray-cray so I just stay away from them. That is until I am asked to do one.

My go-to technique for 2 pagers is to use a grid so can you guess what I defaulted to?

One thing I do love about 2 pagers is that you can include tons and tons of photos. I think the most I squeezed in one time was 12, maybe 14. I can't quite recall but it was a lot. I selected 5 photos for today's project.

I also like to use two different but somewhat similar backgrounds for each side of the page. I'm all for things looking uniform but not exact so this suits my needs.

I love to use song titles or lyrics on my layouts and this favorite from The Beatles hit the spot. The song was the first track recorded during the sessions for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and was intended for inclusion on the album. Instead, with the group under record-company pressure to release a single, it was issued in February 1967 as a double A-side with "Penny Lane". The combination reached number two in the United Kingdom, breaking the band's four-year run of chart-topping singles there, while "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. Source

Saturday, December 19, 2015

This has been one of the hardest secrets to keep for the last several months but I'm a woman of my word and my lips were sealed. I'm so excited that I can share the news that my dear friend Paige Evans has her own scrapbook line with Pink Paislee!

Check out some of the collection below and more of it on her blog and then hop over to my Instagram (@heatherleopard) for a chance to win some puffy stickers and layered stickers she offered me to giveaway.

You guys!!! Patterned papers are my most favorite thing to work with. You have to see the whole line over on Paige's blog. If you are anything like me, you will go bonkers over it all! And the colors! I'm not sure why I get so excited about the colors but I LOVE, love, love it! It feels like a good mix for boys and girls but you know I'll be going the more girly route probably, maybe. The alphas and ephemera and......oh my, I could go on for days!

Look at the texture on those fun buttons!

And those glittered wood veneer are SWOON worthy.

I absolutely love multi-color, multi-patterned Thickers so THIS is ah-mazing!

I am so honored that Paige asked me to help spread the word. Paige and I have worked together on several collaborations, including 3+ years on the American Crafts design team under her leadership, online class collaborations, guesting gigs, and more.

I can't wait to work with this amazing new collection. My mind is already filled with so many amazing ideas.

So who wants to win it before you can buy it? Head over to my Instagram (@heatherleopard) for details on how you can win a set of these gorgeous layered stickers and puffy stickers.

Paige, congratulations again! Thanks for including me in today's festivities and I especially thank you for your friendship and advice. xoxo

Thursday, December 17, 2015

I love adding a personal touch to my holiday decor so when I started working on my mantle for the holidays, I decided to create some garland, on the cheap.

My trusty little assistant was more than happy to help me out with it too. BONUS: we even enjoyed a little walk together to collect a few sticks for the project.

How to: collect a few twigs with enough to create at least 5 sets of stars. Look for enough branches that have enough same size bits so that you can keep your stars in proportion. Create your stars by laying them out on the table. Once you like their shape, you are ready to adhere them together. I suggest you glue them together with hot glue. If you don't have hot glue you can use double sided tape, which is what I did. Cut strips of paper and adhere double sided tape to the back of them. Wrap each corner of the star nice and tight. Once they are complete string them on some twine or jute. Add Bella Bows and other fun items to the garland to finish it off.

String the garland over a door, a wreath, a picture frame, your mantle or whatever looks nice!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

It's hard to believe my baby is 7. I keep asking her to just stop growing and stay little but she keeps telling me with her cute little sad eyes that she can't. Boo hoo!

I still need to journal everything she's currently into at this age and I will get to that later this week. In the meantime, here's a layout I created about her turning another year older.

How to: Cut a supersized 7 out of white cardstock and back it with a pattern paper. I chose a transparency so I backed it with more white cardstock behind the black polka dots. Cut the word "currently" from a coordinating pattern paper. I used a Kerri Bradford's cut file she gave me. Also cut the birth month at the same time from the same paper. I also used a Kerri Bradford file. Next, add the photo, leaving space to add some strips of the top things you want to document in list format. Add embellishments and a little mist.

If any of you have a secret potion to keep them little, please send some my way STAT!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

It's time once again for the Gossamer Blue monthly Inspiration blog hop. We have dozens of design team gals joining us toprovide you with just a little more creative mojo, which is sometimes especially helpful during the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

I mentioned before that I did a lot of this month's scrapping while travelling. Sometimes it was in my room after a long day at an event but many of the times was while I was on an airplane. This particular month was to Amsterdam, Greece and London. Those are some exceptionally long flights so it was very fulfilling to fit in my scrap time.

I had a little fun with my the Pink Paislee Memorabilia line, especially the 6x6 paper pad. I knew I wanted to draw out so many of the colors of the flowers in my daughter's shirt, especially since they were almost identical to the floral print in the collection.

Look how closely the shirt matches to the flowers. I swear I did not plan this. I literally grabbed some pre-printed photos I had in my stash and dashed out the door with my kit.It wasn't until I was looking through them that I realized the coincidence.

I wanted to make a big statement with the different patterns but I only had 6x6 papers to work with so I cut several large triangles from a few of the papers, adhered them to the page and then filled in with smaller triangles from the same paper pad.

I knew I wanted to stitch on the page so I went ahead and added my embellishments and reserved the space for the photo. I went ahead and "built" my photo, the pocket and embellished it but I did not adhere it until after I was home and did my stitching and misting.

So, again I will say that these kits are perfect for anyone on the go. You literally just need to grab your scrapbook staples, some pre-printed photos or take an Instax printer that connects to your smartphone and you are good to go!

Next on the stop is Jill Keller. I love how she used the supersized numbers on her layout!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Oh my word, I never posted this layout from September. I seemed to post it all over social media but not here??? Better late than never!

I wanted to create a fun and festive background with all the adorable patterns from the Star Student collection.

I was inspired by school pennants so I create one in Silhouette, which you can download HERE.

I arranged them to cover most of my background. I then adhered the pattern papers to the back, using the Scrapbook Adhesives Crafty Power Tape. I left some empty so I could fill in with embellishments. I plan to journal along the white edge on the left side of the layout.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Hello, my friends. For this October's Pattern Play I'm talking about fussy cutting. Especially known in the quilting world, fussy cutting is when you cut a detail or particular piece of a pattern. With so many amazing pattern papers, this technique most definitely applies to us scrapbookers.

I love to use this technique with busier patterns, specifically florals so when I saw the beautiful heirloom roses paper from the My Mind's Eye My Story collection in this month's add-on, I grabbed my needle nose scissors, because fine tip scissors are the best for fussy cutters with an eye for detail.

Seriously, how gorgeous are the flowers with those dark grey contrasting leaves?! I cut 6 sets of flowers, two from the corners and 4 other random sets.

I adhered 4 of my 6 sets of flowers to the cardstock background and had two smaller sets remaining. I knew I wanted to use them to add dimension to the page so I added foam adhesive to the back and placed them over the largest cluster on my background paper. I added some gold mist splatter to the page just before adding the photo.

Next, I tucked my photo in the new cluster of flowers, allowing the flowers to overlap just slightly but not enough to distract from the photo. All that was left was to add the finishing details - title, journaling and a few embellishments here and there.

So there you have it. I transformed a busy pattern paper background into beautiful embellishments to help tell the story of one little girl, enjoying watching the butterflies among the flowers at the rainforest.

I want to know...do you ever fussy cut? If not, your should try it. Grab a pair of scissors, paper and turn on your favorite TV show. It'll go by in no time at all.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Hello friends. The past 5 weeks have been quite crazy. It was a good crazy but wowzers, I wasn't present online for most of it.

I've been keeping a secret for nearly two years about a project I was working on at work. It was for a new product launch that will change the way businesses do business from a technology perspective. So I've been working on the marketing for it and the last 2 - 3 months just been cray-cray. That's not to say I wasn't creative but I didn't have time to post any of it.

Part of my job was to make sure our sales teams are trained on this brand new product. And there's a lot to learn - new ways to talk to customers, new ways to reference products, etc. so I was asked to lead a 80 city roadshow practically all by myself with a goal to hit 20 of those locations in November.

Anywho, I had to travel for those and since I enjoy quite a bit of wanderlust, I was up for the challenge. Here's what my schedule looked like:

November 1 - 6: Singapore for work

Back home on the weekend to hug my babies

November 8 - 10: Dubai for work

November 11 - 13: London for work

Back home on the weekend to hug my babies

November 16 - 20: Orange County and Bay Area, California for work

Back home on the weekend to hug my babies

Week of Thanksgiving: we were supposed to be home with the family things happened and our trip that we were going to take this week, had to be moved to the week of Thanksgiving. Long story and I'll spare you the details. The point is that being gone this week was planned way before I knew I'd be travelling the 3 weeks before Thanksgiving. Otherwise, I would have stayed home

November 23 - 29: 13 year anniversary trip to Amsterdam, Athens, Santorini. We were supposed to go to other countries and I'll tell that story later too

November 30 - December 6: London for the big product launch.

So that explains my blogging absence. I did take my scrap supplies with me and got to craft on the flights and in my room when I wasn't working or jet lagged. It was quite fun actually.

Be prepared for my blog to pick back up again now with all the projects I created but didn't get to post as well as regular and more frequent blog posts.

I think I'll channel Paige and do some posts about my trips. The question is how to manage through all the photos???

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

I feel like a broken record but I LOVE this month's Gossamer Blue kit. I mean Crate Paper / Maggie Holmes SHINE! And Seven Paper, Pink Paislee - SWOON!

I created this layout using only the elements of the Main kit.

So apparently my beloved printer doesn't support my PC upgrade so I resorted to my Canon Selphy and discovered it doesn't support my PC upgrade either. This is a scrapbooker's nightmare. Luckily, I had my Instax printer so the photo is a little smaller than I'd like and I had to rework the layout idea I had but it saved the day and I like how it turned out.

I love, love, love the ephemera so I decided to layer the tags and bits and pieces.

The title was an absolutely breeze, mixing and matching words from the ephemera pack and a few alphas.

I think you'll love this kit just as much as I do. Get yours from the Gossamer Blue store before they're gone.

Love My Visitors

Visitors

This is my personal blog, where I share personal life events & crafts created by me, Heather Leopard. Below is a list of manufacturers/companies (in alphabetical order) I am currently working for, either as a designer and/or in a marketing capacity: Pebbles, Inc. (designer), Elle's Studio (designer), Scrapbook Circle (teacher) plus guest designer & publishing opportunities as described on my resume page.

While I am compensated by these companies, either monetarily or in product, I always say what I truly think of their products. The views and opinions expressed here on my blog are solely my own. I will not recommend something that I don't personally use and enjoy. The projects found here on my blog, The Spotted Leopard, have been created using products I have purchased and/or products I have gotten for free. I am not required to disclose, on my blog, if the projects shown were created using products I received for free or if they were my personal purchases. If you have any questions, please contact me at heather @ heatherleopard . com

All content (designs, photos/images, creative how-tos/instructions, etc.) posted on this blog are my original creations, unless otherwise noted. The content shared on this blog is for my personal use only and may not be re-posted, blogged, distributed or sold in any form without specific permission from Heather Leopard. Please respect my work and if it inspires you or your project, please give credit where credit is due by linking back to this blog. I don't mind if you copy my work for your own personal use because it inspired you, but please don't copy my work or anyone’s work for that matter, if you intend to publish it or claim it as your own. That’s just not cool and I’m sure you wouldn’t want it to happen to you either.

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